Here’s how to tell your Morris & Co. from your Sanderson, and why Britain’s great design houses still influence the way our homes look and feel today…
If you’ve ever admired a gorgeous, patterned décor piece and been told it’s “a William Morris light shade” or “a GP & J Baker wallpaper”, you may have nodded along politely while wondering what that actually means, and why these names keep cropping up, decades or even centuries after they were first formed.
British interior design has an unusually strong relationship with its past. Certain design houses have endured an extraordinarily long time, as operational brands in many cases, but also as custodians of particular ideas about beauty, craftsmanship, nature and how our homes should make us feel. Some are still thriving. Some have faded and then been revived or absorbed into larger groups. Others survive mainly through their archives. But put them all together and they’ve shaped what we instinctively recognise as British design.
Some of these great houses are ones we’ve been honoured to collaborate with at Pooky, creating contemporary lampshades based on historic designs, a chance to bring these extraordinary patterns out of the archive and back into everyday life.
This is a succinct Pooky guide to a few of the most important names, and why their work still feels so alive today.
Morris & Co.: Beauty and usefulness
Beauty and usefulness
- How to spot it: Dense, repeating patterns drawn from nature (leaves, flowers, fruit) with a strong underlying structure
- What it stood for: Beauty and usefulness in everyday life; a reaction against industrial ugliness
- Why it matters: Morris helped define the moral seriousness of British design – the idea that homes shape how we live and feel
Any conversation about British design houses really has to start here. Founded in 1861 by William Morris and his collaborators, Morris & Co. grew out of a radical idea: that everyday objects should be both useful and beautiful, and that craftsmanship mattered deeply in an increasingly industrial world.
William Morris believed that good design could improve daily life, not just impress gawping visitors. His wallpapers and textiles were inspired by nature: trailing leaves, flowers, fruit, birds. But they were never merely decorative because there’s a deep underlying sense of order and balance beneath the surface exuberance: dispute all the ‘busy-ness’ of a Morris print, they’re never just chaotic.
That’s why Morris designs still work so well in modern homes: they’re decorative and full of life, but with a calming effect that never loses its appeal.
His close friend and Hammersmith neighbour Emery Walker was so convinced that he decorated his own home almost entirely in Morris & Co. patterns, a house that still stands today as one of the largest collections of original Morris & Co. design works anywhere in the world.
Browse Pooky's exclusive collection of William Morris light shades.
Liberty: The art of pattern (with a worldly eye)
- How to spot it: Lively, expressive patterns with flowing lines, layered motifs and confident colour
- What it stood for: Artistic freedom, global influences, the sheer joy of decoration
- Why it matters: Liberty kept pattern playful and alive and showed that ornament could be modern and sophisticated
Liberty is slightly different from the other names here. Founded in London in 1875, it is first and foremost a store: an emporium of fashion, fabrics and objects, housed in its famous and unmistakable Arts & Crafts-style building just off Regent Street.
But Liberty didn’t simply sell good design, it helped create it. From the late 19th century onwards, the store commissioned and developed its own textiles, building up a vast archive of original patterns that came to define what we now think of as “Liberty style”.
Liberty prints often feel looser and more expressive than their Arts & Crafts contemporaries. There’s a lightness to them and a sense of delight but balanced by a certain refinement that stops them tipping over into excess. Over the decades, the Liberty design studio has repeatedly revisited and refreshed its archive, ensuring that historic patterns continue to feel relevant.
That ability to renew itself is why Liberty designs work so naturally into modern interiors today. And it’s also why they work so beautifully in lighting, where colour and a little bit of flamboyance can transform the atmosphere of a room.
Sanderson Design: Patterns for real life
Patterns for real life
- How to spot it: Balanced, readable patterns, particularly florals and botanicals
- What it stood for: Well-made design for real homes, not just grand interiors
- Why it matters: Sanderson bridged the gap between high design and everyday living, creating patterns people could live with long-term
Sanderson occupies an intriguing middle ground in British design history. Founded in 1860, it supplied wallpapers and fabrics to grand houses and institutions, but also to more ordinary homes. Its designs were often gentler and lighter.
Over time, Sanderson built an extraordinary archive of patterns that chart changing British tastes: from Arts & Crafts florals to mid-century botanicals and beyond. Some designs feel low-key; others are surprisingly bold.
Browse Pooky's exclusive collection of Sanderson light shades.
GP & J Baker: Grandeur and heritage
- How to spot it: Confident, dramatic patterns with historic references and a sense of scale
- What it stood for: Tradition and craftsmanship, confident and decorative
- Why it matters: GP & J Baker reminds us that British design also embraces richness and theatricality (used judiciously, of course)
Founded in 1884, GP & J Baker has long been associated with classic English decoration at its most confident: richly patterned fabrics, historic references, and a wonderful sense of tradition.
The firm has been a favourite of decorators, stately homes and institutions, but what keeps its designs relevant is their assuredness. These are patterns that know who they are. Used well, perhaps in a single lampshade, cushion or chair, they bring depth and history to a room.
GP & J Baker reminds us that British design isn’t only about restraint and understatement: there’s room for the odd dramatic flourish, too.
Browse the Pooky x GP & J Baker lamp shade collection here.
Why these houses still matter
What keeps these houses relevant isn't a shared style, it's a shared seriousness about design, how patterns repeat, how colours behave in different lights, how materials age, and how people actually live with the things they make. They cared, and still care, about that same thing decades or centuries on. That’s why their designs continue to feel alive rather than dated.
And it’s also why they translate so beautifully into lighting. A lampshade allows you to enjoy all that history and artistry in a way that feels natural and contemporary, a small but powerful dose of pattern that can transform the mood of a room.
See Pooky’s current collaborations with Morris & Co. and with GP & J Baker - and browse our full glorious range of lampshades here.
FAQs about the great British design houses
How do you tell a Morris & Co. print from a Sanderson print?
Morris & Co. patterns are dense and richly repeating, trailing leaves, flowers, and fruit with a strong sense of order beneath the detail. Sanderson's patterns tend to be gentler and more readable, designed to work in ordinary homes as much as grand ones, so they often feel lighter and less demanding on a room. Both draw on the same Arts & Crafts well, but Morris leans toward intensity while Sanderson leans toward ease.
Which British design house suits a bold, colourful room?
If you want real drama, GP & J Baker's confident, historic patterns are hard to beat, especially in a single striking lampshade. Morris & Co. and Sanderson both lean gentler and more restrained, better suited to a room where you want pattern without it shouting for attention.
Is there a rule for mixing florals, like a William Morris light shade, with stripes or checks?
Not a strict rule, but scale is what usually makes it work. Pair a dense, busy floral like a William Morris light shade with a simpler, smaller-scale stripe or check rather than another large pattern, and keep a shared colour running through both so they read as a set rather than a clash. It generally helps if one pattern leads and the other supports, rather than the two competing for attention in equal measure.
Are these genuine collaborations with the design houses themselves?
Yes, each collection is a genuine licensing partnership with the design house itself, whether that's Morris & Co., Sanderson, or GP & J Baker. The prints on a Pooky lampshade are the real thing, not an approximation, drawn directly from each house's own archive.
Are there other British design houses worth knowing about?
Plenty, this guide only covers four of the most influential. If you enjoyed this, our guide to Arts & Crafts style digs further into the wider movement that shaped Morris & Co. and its contemporaries.